This collection
focuses on the genesis, process, revision and publication of Ouida Sebestyen's
books for young adults, and includes holographs, typescripts, notes,
correspondence, galley and page proofs, front matter, and jacket material, as
well as a photocopy of a story originally published by Ms. Sebvestyen in
Ingenue, which was later turned into a full-length novel.

Ouida Sebestyen, nee Dockery, was born February 13, 1924, in Vernon,
TX. She married Adam Sebestyen in 1960 and had one son. She attended the
University of Colorado. She began writing at age eighteen, but did not publish
her first book, Words by Heart until 1979. Part of
this novel had originally appeared as a short story in the magazine Ingenue
in 1968. The book was well received, and Ms. Sebestyen has continued to write
fiction for young adults. She draws her inspiration, and often her setting,
from the American West, especially its contrasting harshness and beauty, and
the demands it places upon an individual's survival. While not all her novels
are set in a sharply defined Western setting, throughout all of her books she
focuses on characterization and detail, with an emphasis on human emotions and
development. Her work is noted for its honesty and provacative story lines that
do not always provide a conventional happy ending.

The collection includes
holographs, typescripts, extensive notes, correspondence, galley and page
proofs, front matter, jacket material, and a photocopy of the version of Words
By Heart that appeared in the magazine Ingenue.